Alexia
I searched the entire castle for Mariah only to find that she was in the kitchen, something I would never have imagined. As I passed through the doors, the smell of grease and jam immediately sickened me, but I still forced myself to cross the large, long counter, the cooks referring to each other as I walked past, focused on a single person.
I turned her around.
"Mariah, what are you doing?" I asked her, her hands were shaking and her face was soaked with tears as she popped a piece of tiskake into her mouth "What's gotten into you, this is no time to freak out!"
Mariah hugged my legs, the smell continuing to sicken me as I tried to hold my breath, I needed to get out of there soon or throw up all over the floor.
"What are you doing working? The order is for everyone to stand down, forget the pots and pans and protect your families, we're at war! That's an order!" I said loudly to the cooks and saw them abandon the pots, vegetables and pans and leave.
I looked at Mariah again and bent down to look her in the face and pushed away her messy hair, there was something wrong with Mariah, I'd never seen her so vulnerable.
"Tell me, what happened?" I asked in a low tone, looking into her eyes. "Whatever it is, we'll sort it out together!"
"On one of our trips a shaman or witch, I don't know. She said that I would experience a great mourning later this year."
I frowned.
"Do you think it's Lourenço... that he's going to die in this war? Do you know what the shamans say?" She shook her head in agreement, the shamans were nothing more than tricksters who wanted to cheat the people out of money, they believed in stars and had created their own theory, they invented things that sometimes happened and sometimes didn't, but it was pure convenience because most of the time they got it right it was something predictable and common to happen.
"Lorenzo won't die in this war or in a year Mariah" I said to her, looking into her eyes.
I was about to speak again when I turned around and threw up on the floor, and she cringed, pulling at her dress and grimacing.
"I'm sorry," I said, still wanting to vomit, "but if we don't get out of here now, this whole floor is going to turn to vomit!"
That got a smile out of Mariah, who stood up. Soraya's room was full of guards as we approached and the door opened, Acácio was coming out, I saw him walking with long strides and I couldn't help worrying about him, knowing that he would be on the front line.
"Be careful," I said to Acácio from a distance. He stopped in the corridor and gestured with his hand to his head and a smile on his face.
"Come in," Soraya asked and we went in.
I could see that she was trying to be strong, but her chest was rising and falling rapidly as her eyes seemed about to overflow, she blinked a few times and pointed to the corner of the wall.
We looked at the wall and I saw that it was the outfit intended for me made of dragon skin.
"What's that doing here?" I asked.
"I asked you to bring it."
"If you're going to try to persuade me to wear this, Soraya, you know..."
"Stop being stubborn Alexia, your rebelliousness, thinking about what's right and what's wrong won't save you, things are the way they are and we'll do everything we can to survive for ourselves, for the people who need us and for our children."
I softened my expression when I heard her mention the word "child" and I understood what she meant. Soraya approached me, standing two steps away, and said:
"You still have a lot to live for Alexia, you're young and this outfit could save your life and that of the future king of Olimper. If you really want to live as much as you've been saying, do it whatever it takes."
My eyes watered, my feelings were overwhelmed by the pregnancy.
"That's her motto," Mariah said, giving me a smile just as I was about to cry. I held her hands tightly and hugged her. "Thank you, Soraya, I'll wear it!"
When I turned away from her, Soraya was still smiling.
"Mariah, help me get out of these heavy clothes," she asked, and Mariah approached, placing a knife on the corset's lacings to make it fall off quickly.
"Nobody likes corsets," she said, putting the knife away again.
"You're a box of surprises," I said, turning to her.
"I've been through a lot, so I always keep a penknife in my chest and a knife" She lifted the hem of her dress, showing that there was a knife on her thigh "For protection"
I shook my head in agreement and began to undress, changing quickly. I walked to the throne room where Silver was, the dragon who seemed to sense my presence from miles away opened his eyes and raised his head.
"Let's go," I said to him and he turned his head. I climbed onto his back and Silver flew across the hall, stopping at the large window.
Flying over the sky of Olimper I saw the whole length of the army marching towards the borders as I flew over, like little ants Estevan and Acácio and Lorenzo were at the front mounted on their horses as they led the soldiers forward.
I looked out over the vast expanse of forest where I saw a large crowd of soldiers marching, the sound of trumpets rang out, it was Olimper's alarm which was sounding hourly over the city so that the residents would stay in their homes until it was over.
The town was silent and there wasn't a single person walking the streets, the tension in my bones only increased as I turned around realizing that now protecting Olimper from Torrem was what I would do by taking hundreds of lives of his own people to their death I focused on the forests on the border where hundreds of people were crossing the trees and the waterfall and falling over the skies I threw myself into focus with my heart about to jump out of my mouth, I shouted.
"Silver, fire!"
He opened his mouth and poured his flames over the trees, screams could be heard as well as the cracking of wood as I continued to fly over the vast expanse of the border, it wasn't a fair war, I was weaker, Silver was smaller than George's dragon and our army was half of what they had when they joined Zaim, so, following Alexander's rules that he had taught me, if you're weaker you need to use what's in your favor and it was okay to cheat a little.
I circled the city to see that a large expanse of our green riches was now ablaze with flames, one soldier or another was running out of the forest, struggling on the ground, and I landed in front of the large army, my eyes caught in the bright red of the sunlight.
"That was very clever," said Lorenzo as he approached.
"It's nothing, hundreds of them," I said as I saw one or other of them making their way through the flames "Soon the flames will be nothing."
A loud roar in the sky made me shudder, I looked at them and held on tightly to Silver knowing that now the battle would begin and that Charlotte would come with everything, a single mistake, a slip, a false step and I, my son and Silver would be dead.